{"id":13128,"date":"2022-03-17T08:38:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-17T08:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/?p=13128"},"modified":"2022-03-14T17:39:04","modified_gmt":"2022-03-14T17:39:04","slug":"brent-st-patricks-day-parade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/?p=13128","title":{"rendered":"Brent St Patrick’s Day Parade"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Brent St Patrick’s Day Parade<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brent is the London Borough with the largest Irish population and there are also significant numbers in the neighbouring boroughs of Camden and Islington and Hammersmith & Fulham, with Kilburn and Willesden Green being the in particular having large populations of Irish descent,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Brent
St Patrick, Willeden Green, 2007<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So it was hardly surprising that Willesden Green for some years had its own St Patrick’s Day procession, held on the day itself, March 17th, as well as the London celebration begun in 2002 when Ken Livingstone was Mayor on the nearest Sunday. Labour Brent also celebrated days for some of its other communities until recently cuts in funding from a Tory dominated central government made this no longer possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Willeden Green, 2007<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The parade in Brent was on a smaller and friendlier scale than the London parade, and far more a community festival on the street, with others as well as the Irish joining in and having a good time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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St Patrick, Willesden Green, 2008<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The multi-cultural nature of Brent was clear in that the parade began outside an Islamic Cultural Centre and those taking part included many local school-children from a whole mix of heritages. Brent as well as St Patrick’s Day also then celebrated Diwali, Eid, Christmas, Chanukah and Navrati, and Holocaust Memorial Day, along with a black history programme, its own ‘Respect’ festival and a world food and music festival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Willesden Green, 2008<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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St Patrick blesses the photographer, Willesden Green, 2009<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But it was very clearly an Irish event, with Irish people from all across London coming to watch and take part, both in the parade and in the various pubs and bars along the route.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Willesden Green, 2009<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Some of the floats in the parade were also in the main London St Patrick’s Day parade, but the atmosphere here was much more relaxed. Here are a few pictures that I made from 2009-2013. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Willesden Green, 2009<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Willesden Green, 2010<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Willesden Green, 2010<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Willesden Green, 2010<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Willesden Green, 2010<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Willesden Green, 2011<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Willesden Green, 2012<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Two St Patricks, Willesden Green, 2012<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Willesden Green, 201<\/em>2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Willesden Green, 2013<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In 2013, the event was much smaller as council funding had been cut, thanks to Tory austerity policies. And because St Patricks Day that year was on the Sunday, the celebration in Brent was held a day earlier so not to clash with the London parade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think this was the last St Patrick’s Day Parade in Brent – certainly it was the last I photographed. You can see many other pictures from Brent St Patrick’s Day Parade on My London Diary<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brent St Patrick’s Day Parade 2007<\/a> (scroll down the page)
Brent St Patrick’s Day Parade 2008<\/a>
Brent St Patrick’s Day Parade 2009<\/a>
Brent St Patrick’s Day Parade 2010<\/a>
Brent St Patrick’s Day Parade 2011<\/a>
Brent St Patrick’s Day Parade 2012<\/a>
Brent St Patrick’s Day Parade 2013<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brent St Patrick’s Day Parade Brent is the London Borough with the largest Irish population and there are also significant numbers in the neighbouring boroughs of Camden and Islington and Hammersmith & Fulham, with Kilburn and Willesden Green being the in particular having large populations of Irish descent, So it was hardly surprising that Willesden … Continue reading Brent St Patrick’s Day Parade<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,3],"tags":[625,1967,3545,7390,7395,2756,3668,7391,1707,1953,7392,7388,7393,17,1343,7389,1228,83,1308,7394,3827,1026,6948],"class_list":["post-13128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-londonphotos","category-my-own-work","tag-austerity","tag-banner","tag-brent","tag-community-festival","tag-community-festivals","tag-costumes","tag-fancy-dress","tag-floats","tag-green","tag-irish","tag-irish-colours","tag-irish-festival","tag-irish-flags","tag-london","tag-london-photos","tag-multicultural","tag-parade","tag-peter-marshall","tag-procession","tag-shamrock","tag-st-patrick","tag-tory-cuts","tag-willesden-green"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13128"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13128\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13130,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13128\/revisions\/13130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}